~ An Edmonton-based movie blog

Monthly Archives: December 2014

Images courtesy of New Line Cinema, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, WingNut Films, and Warner Bros. Pictures.

I don’t think I’m what you could call a hardcore fan of The Lord of the Rings. I mean, yeah, I watched and loved the Peter Jackson movies like everyone else, and I’ve sat through more than one extended edition marathon.

But I barely know how to spell The Silmarillion, much less know what it is, and I keep calling that Westmarch one the Red Book of Dorne, which is completely wrong because I’m mixing up high fantasy universes and they should revoke my nerd card immediately and ban me from attending conventions ever again.

So I don’t think you could call me a fan by any definition of the word. I do, however, enjoy the movies immensely — so much so that I went to see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies last night in the VIP theatre. (Pro tip: do that. They bring you food, like right to your chair.)

But this is not a plug for movie theatres and their rising standards. This is me talking about the movie I saw, my impressions of the franchise, and what I think comes next. So let’s take an unexpected journey, shall we?

Sometimes we run out of time for a full review, sometimes release dates don’t fit into our schedule, and sometimes we just don’t have much to say about the things we’ve just watched. Here are some quick reviews of some of 2014’s bigger – but not big enough – movies.

Boyhood

Boyhood images courtesy of IFC Films

In many ways a towering achievement in filmmaking and in many more ways a simple, straightforward film about growing up, Boyhood is a strong work from every reasonable perspective, but is obviously most notable for its production schedule. Shot over the course of twelve (12!) years, the ambition of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is almost staggering, particularly considering that the key figures in the movie’s production were far from stagnant in the intervening time — director Linklater delivered prolific work, including mainstream hits like School of Rock and the final two installments in his romantic drama series, Before Sunset and Before Midnight; Ethan Hawke, who plays the father in Boyhood, starred in more than twenty movies (even if nobody actually saw them); and even Ellar Coltrane, the boy himself, had roles in several other films throughout the teen years that formed the basis of his onscreen time in this film. It’s the sheer audacity of the concept combined with coherent storytelling that makes Boyhood one of the most notable movies of 2014.

Well, hello there! Bet you weren’t expecting a review from me. But I figured I’d swing by during my fall hiatus and let you know what I thought of Mockingjay Part 1, the third instalment of the Hunger Games trilogy-that’s-actually-a-series-now-and-what’s-it-even-called-when-it’s-four-of-something-anyway.

In Mockingjay Part 1, Katniss Everdeen is struggling to cope with life now that District 12 has been destroyed and all of Panem is in open rebellion. She’s expected to be the Mockingjay, the face of the revolution, but it’s proving difficult when every minute is plagued by the thought of Peeta and the other tributes being tortured in the Capitol.

She manages to pull through in splendid fashion, using her innate awesomeness to be the Mockingjay and rally the country behind the flag of President Coin and District 13. There’s also some emotional stuff with Gale, who’s drifting further away from her and being fairly nasty about it.

I don’t think what I’m feeling about last night’s midseason-ending episode is schaudenfreude, a sense of pleasure from the suffering of others, because it’s not the suffering that I’m enjoying, and I don’t think it’s survivor’s guilt, because it’s not my survival that superseded other real people. But I am very glad about who died in “Coda”, and I do feel a little bit guilty about how hard I’ve come down on that person in the very recent past.

So the big news this week in the land of the walking, roaming, lurking, biting geeks is that Beth is dead, killed almost by an accident largely of her own doing as our heroes went through with their plan to trade the two cops they were holding hostage for Beth and Carol instead of just killing everyone like they should’ve. Continue reading →